May 17, 2012
Three-quarters of the world's CEOs say more emphasis should be placed on measuring the value of non-financial assets such as intellectual capital and customer relationships.
This was the headline finding of a recent study (PDF) by the American...
May 7, 2012
Recently we wrote about how managing for innovation requires balancing four critical factors to produce a highly motivated and creative workforce. Perhaps the most difficult of those balancing acts is ensuring that employees have clear, meaningful goals as well as considerable...
April 27, 2012
Nick Bilton of The New York Times strongly suggests that comfort and wealth are inimical to innovation. He points out that while Google and Facebook are well ensconced in sumptuous surroundings, much of the entrepreneurial activity in high tech is happening outside their sphere, in the rough-and-tumble world of mobile communications. He cites the acquisition of Instagram as...
April 25, 2012
Work is a financial necessity for almost everyone, along with the sacrifices work sometimes demands. It can be drudgery. But work also can be fun and exciting. The competition can be energizing. Work can be an important and positive part of our lives.
I learned a lot about this from Amy Wrzesniewski and her work with job crafting (PDF). She...
April 24, 2012
Is every democracy destined for the problems of Greece?
In writing Passion & Purpose, my coauthors and I heard a lot about the traits and aspirations of the next generation of leaders. But we also heard a great deal about their concerns. A key anxiety is debt. Not just...
April 18, 2012
Is there a corporate leader who doesn't extol the virtues of innovation these days? Yet if innovation is so important, why do so many companies have so much trouble with it?
The reflexive response is that it is a human capital problem — that is, that most people just don't have what it takes to successfully innovate. I reject that view. Academic research in fact shows that almost anyone can become a competent...
Collaboration is the way we work now. In a 2008 BusinessWeek study of white-collar professionals, 82% reported they needed to partner with others throughout the day to get their work done. That means people don't just work together in meeting and conference rooms anymore. Collaboration now occurs all the time at personal desks and in hallways, or virtually via internet or smart phones, and it's often spontaneous and informal, rather than planned in advance.
Unfortunately our legacy...
April 16, 2012
If you shaved today, either in the U.S. or in India, you probably used a Gillette razor. Gillette (now a brand of P&G), reportedly has had a U.S. market share of more than 80%, with Schick a distant second. Even more remarkably, they achieved this without resorting to price competition. The blade cartridges for its latest-and-greatest razor, the top-selling Fusion ProGlide, retail for around $4 each, leaving...
March 14, 2012
Our prior blog post posed the question, "Will Business Step Up or Step Out?" Will business leaders reconnect with their communities and do their part to restore U.S. competitiveness? Or will they move from location to location, in search of better short-term deals? In this post, we share some data that encourage us to believe that the great majority of business leaders are willing, even eager, to...
March 13, 2012
While writing our book Jugaad Innovation, we've come across many innovators in the U.S. who are using the jugaad mindset — a frugal, flexible, and feisty approach to take on the country's major socioeconomic issues. Not surprisingly, a significant number of the innovators we met were Millennials, many of whom are cynical about large corporations. According to The Affluence...
